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Review--Manners & Mutiny by Gail Carriger

If one must flirt…flirt with danger.

Lessons
in the art of espionage aboard Mademoiselle Geraldine’s floating
dirigible have become tedious without Sophronia’s sweet sootie Soap
nearby. She would much rather be using her skills to thwart the
dastardly Picklemen, yet her concerns about their wicked intentions are
ignored, and now she’s not sure whom to trust. What does the brusque
werewolf dewan know? On whose side is the ever-stylish vampire Lord
Akeldama? Only one thing is certain: a large-scale plot is under way,
and when it comes to fruition, Sophronia must be ready to save her
friends, her school, and all of London from disaster—in decidedly
dramatic fashion, of course.

What will become of our proper young
heroine when she puts her years of training to the test? Find out in
this highly anticipated and thrilling conclusion to the New York Times
bestselling Finishing School series!

Gail Carriger brings the Finishing School series to a finish with Manners & Mutiny and I must say, things do go out with a bang! Sophronia has had a time of it all while attending Mademoiselle Geraldine's, but a proper lady knows not to complain as such!

While I could never really fully get into this series as a whole, I have enjoyed it on some level! I guess, it's just been too long since I read the first book and even binging the remaining books continued to leave me befuddled as to a few things. Then add in the fact that all these events take part before the Parasol Protectorate series and I'm right about lost! LOL. Though I want to say I can dredge up some inklings of the first series Gail wrote and the connection to this one. As we've seen a few characters and then the epilogue here gives even more headway into that series.

The year is winding down and as the girls come back after the holidays to reign in the new year with their fellow classmates, quite the disaster occurs and everyone must leave the floating school, everyone except for Sophronia of course! Sophronia is determined to uncover who is attacking the school and basically stop them, using all the skills she's learned as of late.

This series is definitely fun and quirky, you could say! Sophronia is a fun heroine and her friends are just as amusing and entertaining! Even as the series wraps itself up we learn a few shocking revelations about them.

Then there's that ever present YA love triangle. Truly, it's a love-hate relationship with those. It all depends on the execution of it for it to work for me. This one was a bit muddy. Sophronia has feelings for Soap, the lowly sootie, but who's now a newly made werewolf when she bargained the last time around to save his life. It's not just his race that stands between them in having a public relationship, though sadly, it does factor in when you consider the time in society, but there's still a handful of other things as well. Then there's Felix who claims to care for Sophronia and yet, he betrayed her and her friends last time around as well. He was never able to stand up for himself and leech away from his father. And yet, we learn a thing or two about him.

What kind of drove me bonkers was that Sophronia never really seemed to have a choice in mind. She clearly was driven away from Felix after his betrayal, yet I never got that she cared for Soap than more than just a friend. She constantly tells herself she doesn't feel anything for him...I don't know. Maybe it was how I read it, she had no conflicting feelings when she said such things to herself, so I just didn't get that "I love Soap" vibes. Though we already know she does care for him in a sense, he's been her friend since the very beginning after all.

The series ends rather well. There was just one character whose fate was left untold...Sophronia goes on in the afterword that tells us pretty much where all her friends left off, except one. And I felt disappointed by that. But what can you do? Otherwise, I felt like things wrapped up nicely. And I feel confident in my assumption, we do see her briefly in the Parasol Protectorate series, as there was mention of her next assignment just towards the end of the book.

The Finishing School series was a fun and enjoyable read! I can't wait to read more from Gail Carriger, as it stands I still need to read Prudence and I am so looking forward to that one too!